THE AFRICA BUSINESS HIGHLIGHT ON CEM TELEVISION

Nigeria Now Second Most Food-Insecure Nation Globally Ghana’s Inflation eases to 28-month low in July From Kenya, Secretary General of COTU Cautions on IMF conditionalities Implementation SOUTH AFRICA’s Number of unemployed rises to 8.4-million Zimbabwean Manufacturers decries forex inaccessibility Nigeria has experienced a sharp deterioration in its food insecurity status, now ranking as the second country globally with the highest number of people grappling with hunger, according to the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC). GRFC attributed this position to a complex interplay of factors, including conflict, economic shocks, and climate change. Since 2016, Nigeria has consistently ranked among the top ten countries grappling with food insecurity. A gradual ascent saw the nation climb from fourth in 2016 to second in 2017, before experiencing a temporary respite in 2018 Ghana’s annual inflation rate has dropped to 20.9 percent in July 2024. This is its lowest level in 28 months since March 2022, and the fourth consecutive month of decline. The Government Statistician, Professor Samuel Kobina Annim, in Accra on Wednesday, attributed the overall decline to decreases in both food and non-food categories, underscoring the broad impact these reductions have had on the economy. As inflation continues to ease, there is growing speculation that Ghana’s central bank may consider lowering interest rates to further stimulate economic activity. Secretary General of the Central Organization of Trade Unions in Kenya, Francis Atwoli has strongly cautioned John Mbadi, Secretary of the National Treasury Cabinet against blindly implementing IMF loan conditionalities. In a statement dated August 14, Atwoli urged Mbadi to carefully consider the potential impacts of these conditions on Kenya’s economy. He noted that consequences from following IMF advice without scrutiny has historically been adverse for citizens and workers. The IMF conditions include hiking taxes, reducing subsidies and cutting government waste. With these conditions Kenya stand a chance of unlocking $3.9bn in economic funding and a separate climate funding of $542m. Unemployment rate jumps to 33.5% in South Africa in the second quarter of 2024, the highest since the government repealed COVID-19 rules in the second quarter of 2022 According to Reuters, an Economist, Sanisha Packirisamy said significant job creation in South Africa would take time, and “as such we are not expecting significant jobs growth in the remainder of this year”. Business Live said that SA added about 1.8-million jobs since the start of 2022. This was mostly towards the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023. Over this period, the labour force increased by about 2.2-million to 25-million. This resulted in the total number of unemployed people in SA increasing to a 8.38-million in the second quarter of 2024. The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industry (CZI), the country’s biggest business lobby group, has raised serious concern over manufacturers difficulty to obtain foreign currency from the Willing Buyer Willing Seller (WBWS) platform in order to import critical raw materials. CZI CEO, Sekai Kuvarika said the situation was dire. According to Business Times, manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe is highly import dependent, over 70% in most of the cases. Inability to access forex is a serious threat to the economy